intriguing question

I was watching the philly/denver game this afternoon, and I watched a peculiar situation arise. Down several touchdowns (3 or 4) and on their own three yard line, the play clock was running out on the eagles. McNabb then, out of instinct more than anything, took a timeout to save the penalty. The announcers didnt even think to talk about this, but he took a timeout . . . TO SAVE A YARD AND A HALF! Clearly the situation did not warrant the spending of a timeout, particularly for a team that would likely need it in order to run a two minute drill at the end of the first half. My question is this: Is the timeout less valuable than the five yard penalty as the frivolous use in these types of scenarios suggests? I certainly don't feel that way, save for very few situations . . . 3rd or 4th and short basically. Is this a situation as bunting in baseball? anybody have any suggestions as to how i'd test my hypothesis here?

Count em....6?

Has there been another stathead hired as a G.M. in baseball? Are there now six "Moneyball" G.M.'s out there? (Oakland, Toronto, Boston, L.A.D., Texas, and Arizona).

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AjhR2TvHe546pB_1S.sicbQRvLYF?slug=ap-diamondbacks-byrnes&prov=ap&type=lgns

That's one fifth of the league! What is your reaction to this? Is this good or bad for the Brewers? I am inclined to say that on reputation alone the two most recently hired stathead GMs will be good. They will exploit the marketplace and its overvaluing of certain commondities. On the surface, this would seem to reduce the amount of underpriced talent available to the Brewers. The other side of it, though, is that the Brewers really weren't playing in that market anyway.
Let's take an example: Draft day. These six GMs probably aren't going to take high school players early in the draft. Is this good for the Brewers because the team wouldn't pick college kids anyway, and other teams' focus on college kids would just make the high school talent more rich? Or, is this bad because the Brewers now certainly won't get as good of college talent, the talent the team should be drafting?
Just curious what everyone's reaction is to this. What would your reaction be if the Pirates or Reds hired someone like this?


P.S. Chad Johnson is fucking hilarious!

a little college football humor

Even being a ND fan, I still thought this was pretty funny.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/42106

Lou looks really good for being well over a century old ;)

3TO Explained: The Legend of Deer

Bubsbrother asks: "...what about a ground rule double?? isn't that another outcome that renders the opposing defense "meaningless?"

Ground rule doubles are not a 3TO because they still have an element of defense and are not pure statistics. A speedy outfielder can catch a ball that would ultimately bounce over the wall, while a slow outfielder would never get to the ball. You can make an argument that a defender can take away a home run ball, but that argument misses the point of the Three True Outcomes.
At its very base, the 3TO are the most pure statistic of measuring a plate appearance. When a player strikes out, walks, or hits a home run, you get as good of an indication as you can from that at-bat. Even though a defender may or may not have stolen a home run ball, the hitter still hit the ball hard enough to get it over the wall. Furthermore, how often do you see a home run taken away?

What does the ground-rule double measure? Nothing really. The hitter may have hit it 430 feet to center in Houston and had it bounce over the wall. On the other hand, he may have chopped one passed the first baseman down the line in right and had a fan intrefere with it. Or, in Wrigley, he may have hit a lazy fly ball that Corey Patterson misjudges that gets lost in a mound of misplaced ivy. Bottom line - while home runs, walks, and strikeouts are influenced by external factors (wind, park, umpire...), they avoid the extreme influence of defense and are the most pure statistics around.

But, it doesn't end there. 3TO is not just a statistical phenominon; it is much much more. It is a way of life. It is a passion. It is the essence of baseball. We all watch baseball for different reasons, and we all enjoy different aspects of the game. For me, a 3TO follower, the game can be broken down into a series of single plate appearances. Is there anything better than watching a hitter and pitcher do battle? This is what the game is all about! Baseball analysis could be so easy... "the White Sox won because when Konerko faced Qualls, Konerko won the battle bigtime!" Less than 5% of the game is fielding and team speed. The other 95% is pitching and hitting.

Given that baseball comes down to individual plate appearances, I want to see a guy go up there who is fun to watch. A guy that hits as though the world was ending. I don't want the media to be able to spin the at-bat into something it wasn't. For instance, a chopped ball to the left side of the infield that ends up being a single is garbage to me. Sorry David Eckstein.
3TO challenges the notion that people who strike out are overmatched at the plate. Was Rob Deer really overmatched in 1996, when he struck out 30 times in 50 at-bats? Would it change your mind if I told you that he homered 4 times? What if I told you that he walked 14 times in those 50 at-bats? A 3TO hero like Deer exercises the two most entertaining, and two of the most important aspects of hitting, taking pitches and swinging really fucking hard. Now that is excitement!

Rob Deer was probably the greatest 3TO player of all time. I had the privilege of watching the artisan perform his trade throughout my childhood. Newcomers to the game are currently treated to maybe the second best 3TO hero of all time, Russell T. M. Branyan. Enjoy him!

If you prefer to watch a guy like Jose Macias crawl to the plate and hack at every pitch just to put the ball on the ground somewhere, then you won't ever be a 3TO follower. But, if you're like me and love to see long ABs with tons of pitches taken, really hard swings, and pure statistical outcomes, then you are a REAL Three True Outcomes believer.

three true outcomes

Jimii and I were sitting around watching the white pods saturday night, and were naturally bored and disgruntled. We found enjoyment through the thought of putting together an all 2005 three true outcome team. For those unaware (yep, we're talkin to you, Tim), the three true outcomes in baseball are the walk, the home run, and the strikeout, the three plays that render opposing defenses meaningless (that is unless the catcher drops strike three, or the umpire thinks he does, anyway). anyway, here are your 2005 heroes, including Milwaukee Brewer RT Muscle Branyan, your 2005 3 true outcome mvp

C: Jason Varitek
1B: Jason Giambi (over Richie Sexson by virtue of crappier defense)
2B: Dick Weeks
3B: RT Muscle B
SS: Jhonny Peralta
LF: Dunnimus Prime
CF: Jim Edmonds
RF: Bill Mo Pena
DH: Dick Sexson

Bench: Jonny Gomes, Jason Bay, Troy Glaus, Pat Burrell

Other teams to follow, including 2005 not 3 true outcome team and 2005 3 true outcome pitchers.


Also, a random thought . . . we all thought it was cool when the cubs absolutely blew it in 03 when they should have at least gone to the world series. how much more salt can be thrown in their wounds if, in consecutive seasons, the other two teams with notorious championship droughts were to win the world seri? all i know is, we're approaching 100 years between championships for the cheaters, something i feel we should all get together to celebrate should it come to fruition.

Podsuxnik

Do you hear that? That's right, it's the sound of the media sucking Podsednik's penis

you've got to be fucking kidding me

after the astros (correctly) test podsenik's arm from very very shallow left to tie the game, the most overrated player east of derek j . . . the most overrated player in mlb hits a walk off home run. his second of the playoffs/season. and, as j-beast's buddy pointed out last night, he hit a triple saturday, too. I'm pretty sure i just got more mad about that than I did about the Slackers losing today. I'm cutting my losses for the day.

late football picks

missed most game starts, here are my saturday and sunday picks:
Oregon (-10) @ Arizona
Penn St. @ Illinois (+17.5)
Oregon st. (+9.5) @ UCLA

GreenBay (-1.5) @ Minnesota
San Francisco @ Washington (-13)
Denver @ New York Giants (-2)

Playoff Baseball Competition

Congrats to me, a.k.a. the J-Beast. Since no one, besides the anti-Bub predicted the White Sox or Astros to win the World Series, we have a final point total in our prediction.

J-Beast: 4 points
The Bub: 3 Points
$lash: 2 Points
MiniBub: 2 Points

Let this show just how unpredictable postseason baseball is. None of us was able to get more than 3 of the 7 seri correct. The "Better" team won 75% of the first round games and 50% of the second round games. If the Astros win the world series, the better team will have won 4/7 of the seri, which is exactly what normally happens. No one was picking the White Sox (even though they were the "best team in the AL"), and very few were picking the Astros. But, this shows that when teams that are all good and had similar records after 162 regular season games (with the exception of the Padres) play in a 5 or 7 game series, anything can happen.

this board is dead

Where is everybody? I'm so sick of seeing nothing on this board other than the reminder of the painful football game last saturday that i am actually going to post about something other than football point spreads. This is a question that is pretty much a long time in the making , but we're really desperate for anything we can get right now, and I've had to ponder it for a while myself. Did the Brewers have an MVP in 2005? My hypothesis is no. Turnbow would have been a clear MVP in my mind if he had been used more effectively. It's unfortunate that Yost's misuse of turnbow precludes him from qualification, in my mind's eye, but it is what it is.
Why he's close: He was astoundingly effective throughout the course of the year, and did not have alarmingly poor droughts at any point throughout the season. As we saw the true weakness of the bullpen shine through towards the end of the season, it must be assumed that without Turnbow there would not have been 81 wins this year. He was absolutely lights out the last two months of the season. However, its incredibly difficult to give a team mvp award to a player who pitched only a few innings a week, often times not even in the most high leverage situations. had he been used like garner uses lidge or tracy used gagne in the past, Turnbow would be my choice.
So why, then, don't I tab an offensive player as MVP? I apologize for lack of statistical reinforcement for a lot of my points (I'm at work and shouldn't really even be doing this, so I want to keep internet access to a minimum). Lee provided a lot of the big power that was absent from the brewer's lineup in '04, but his obp was particularly poopy for a big time slugger. He's just another latin player trying to swing his way through the major leagues. Jenkin's start to the season was SO horrific that I can't justify saying that he was the most valuable player to the team. I would also like to bring contract figure into the value discussion because, lets face it, the amount of money we pay a player has an effect on his overall value. Lyle Overbay should prove to be the most valuable brewer this offseason, when he nets us some bullpen/back of the rotation help, but his .370/.450 numbers were not particularly noteworthy. Branyan would have been mvp if he didnt spend so much time injured, not playing against righties and striking out against lefties of all calibers. Brady Clark got on base a poopload during the beginning of the year, but saw his numbers wane as the year dragged on. he may be most valuable to the team because they have to hold on to him to keep a qualified player in the leadoff spot. as I see it, there is nobody currently with the organization that can fill the leadoff role with anything close to the success clark had. That being said, he got caught stealing A LOT in the beginning of the year, negating several of his hits/walks.
others? hall: no, hardy: no, though his second half shows promise, capuano: no, helling: maybe next year, weeks, miller, et. all: no. Therefore, if forced to choose an mvp at gunpoint, I would give a very underwhelming tie to Turnbow and Clark as team mvp's. your thoughts?

I like point spreads

I know I promised better analysis this week, but too bad, all you get is football gambling. Everybody here watched me call my shot last week, so I'm gonna follow it up, along with the lenghthiest piece of analysis I've done in some time. Also, my record blew last week, but, hey, it happens to the best of us.

Saturday, Rocktober 15
USC @ Notre Dame (+12)
Lots of people are talking about how bad Notre Dame's pass defense is. I am not here to call it first rate, because first rate it is not. However, it's not as bad as people claim it to be. the statistic quoted most often is that the Irish have the 114th ranked pass defense in the country. However, this number is based on yards per game. Can anybody tell me why this is a misleading statistic? Mr. The Bub, you had your hand up, go ahead. Well, folks, the reason that number is so atrocious: Notre Dame has jumped out to such tremendous early leads, and to a lesser extent controlled time of possession, that opposing teams have no option but to pass the ball. Did you know that three teams have given up more yardage per game through the air, but that only three teams have had more pass attempts against? Probably not. What's more, when you calculate yards per attempt (not done conveniently anywhere, I had to do this shizzle myself), Notre Dame's pass defense is ranked 86th. Like I said, I'm not here to defend it, but that number is a whole lot more appealing than fourth last. Furthermore, the average y/a against is 6.91 and ND's is 7.49, a statistically significant but not obscene difference, particularly in a category with a 6 y/a range. Their ypg number, however, is 308, while average sits at 220. in short, their pass defense is clearly their Achilles heel, but shouldn't be nearly as detrimental as anticipated.
Other things to consider: Charlie Weis has effectively gameplanned for each and every opponent faced thus far this year. In fact, we've torn pretty much every defense but one to shreds. and with the exception of the pitt game, they've all been with 7 days preparation. now he's had fourteen, so I can really only hope to expect twice the output from the offense (tim, don't jump all over me, I don't really expect 80 points this weekend). This will not be a blowout like Notre dame's other wins, but I expect Notre Dame to show up a lot more prepared than USC (and by that I mean the USC players, not necessarily the coaching staff) will have given them credit for. I am aware that not everybody that reads this site cares about Notre dame football, but 3 of us are grads, a fourth is attending, and condescendy is a subway alum. so there. . . straight up: Notre Dame

I will not be picking any other games this weekend. My reasons are manifold. 1. I do not favor any of the lines on the other games. B) I don't give a shit about any game but the one mentioned above this Saturday. III.) The Packers don't play sunday, so no need to pick nfl games.If someone were holding a gun to my head, I would take Georgia -16 and Louisville -7 Saturday, but those will not count towards my totals.

kinda funny

I thought this article was pretty entertaining. It pokes fun at the debacle that occurred in last night's ALCS game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2005/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=2189660

This is my favorite part:
"However, the Court finds Mr. Paul equally responsible. Mr. Paul, you could have saved this court a lot of time and expense by simply tagging Mr. Pierzynski, who surely gives you ample time. (No offense to you, Mr. Pierzynski, but you are rather slow. Maybe not Molina slow, but so slow that it's still puzzling as to why you tried stealing a base in Game 1.) You are hereby again relegated to the third-string role, and may you hope the Angels do not sign Yadier Molina."

Ha ha, he is slow...and I too really hope Pierzynski wasn't actually trying to steal second in game 1.

Postseason Baseball on FOX

Wow, I just noticed this and I don't know if he made an appearance in the LDS or not, but Scooter (the talking baseball) is back. Shoot me...although he is smarter and provides more worth in 15 seconds to the game than Tim McCarver does in 3 hours.

JoePa

I have a request for some help here. I appear to be one of the few people in America that didn't see footage of Joe Paterno dancing around at the pep rally PSU held before the OSU game this past weekend. Apparently it is one of the funniest things ever...so funny that it's almost sad. I need to see this!!! If anyone knows of where even a tiny clip might be available to watch, please let me know.

pbr playoff prediction contest

I really, really want to give my input on sports right now, but I just dont have the time, and I don't think blogger has the space for me to do so. Therefore, I'll be succinct. How awesome is it that we won't have to hear anything about the Red Sox Yankees rivalry? sure, we'll hear allusions to years past, and comparisons to derek Jeter, but finally, other story lines in baseball. Speaking of awesome, anybody else think it'd be kinda cool if the sox won this year simply so the Chubs would be the only team not to win a world series after WWI? after that, we could work on the Indians and the Astros (?). I've got lots of football to discuss, including the Packers first win, but the only comment i'll make is this: I've seen early lines of 12 and 13 on the ND game this weekend, and more recent lines as low as 11.5. I'm still taking nd and the points this weekend. Game to be closer than given credit for. Anyway, here's the real reason for the post-updated standings for the PBR me ASAP PPC:
Le Bub: 3 pts, 11 possible
$lash: 2 pts, 8 possible
Le MiniBub: 2 pts, 8 possible
J Beast: 2 pts, 4 possible
Ryne Sandberg: 2 pts, ? Possible
Le AntiBub: 1 pt, 7 possible

I'm just not going to let writers get away with this

This is an addition to my previous posts about terrible baseball commentary. You guys keep posting things, and it is making my rants about bad announcing and writing fall lower on the blog. I won't let this issue die.

I found this last piece of commentary on the Brewerfan.net message board. My visit to the page started out with some hilarity. I find out that the team has waived Durrington, Santos, Magruder, Santana, and Luis Pena. I question the Santana move, but am pleased. Then I see someone make this new post asking what everyone's favorite Chris Magruder moment was. The original poster is really serious, as apparently he liked Magruder. He states that his favorite moment was "August 10, 2004, Chris Magruder hits a go-ahead home run to beat the Atlanta Braves." Okay, Magruder did have one good moment in his time with the Crew. But, here's the hilarious part...SIX minutes after the original post, some smartass has already responded with "October 7th, 2005. Chris Magruder outrighted." Clearly he beat me to the punch, but that is hilarious!

Anyway, so I keep strolling down and find a link to some jackass at CNNSI's most recent analysis of the Podsednik/Lee trade: http://p092.ezboard.com/fbrewersfandemoniumfrm3.showMessage?topicID=9852.topic
As you can see, he starts the article off very well. He acknowledges that Lee is the better offensive player and that the Sox's offense has not been as good without him. All is good, right? I guess not.
Why in the world does he end with this butt nugget..."Don't get me wrong. I am a huge proponent of what Pods and players like him (Juan Pierre, Brett Butler) bring to the table every day -- defense, contact hitting, speed -- as opposed to the every-fourth-day big blasts by guys like Lee. I'm willing to look past what these newfangled metrics (that are slanted toward burly sluggers anyway) are telling me and accept things based on what I see in the real world. Are you?"
Um, WHAT?! Oh yes, those are slanted towards burly sluggers, aren't they? Hmmm, how interesting. I wonder why they are. May I take a wild guess? Here it is: Is it because those big, burly sluggers help teams score runs? I must be stupid. It couldn't be that easy, could it? Who cares about runs? Luft points out that Podsednik was worth about 16 more runs defensively than Lee. Okay, I buy that. But that does not change the metric from saying that Lee was almost three times more valuable than Podsednik, does it? So, those 16 runs that Podsednik saved were the reason that the White Sox gave up almost 200 less runs this season. Yup. That's obvious. Hey, Luft, you are the one using the stat. Don't use it if it makes you look stupid!

And what in the world is up with this "I don't want a guy that only helps the team every-fourth game?" Carlos Lee is not Rob Fucking Deer. Does this mother fucker not understand that Lee had just as good of a batting average as Podsednik? Did Lee not get hits and walks in those other three games? Furthermore, when Lee did hit those home runs, how the fuck much did that help?! And here is the part that really pisses me off. Even if this guy has a hard-on for players like Brett Butler, who I think is dead, and Juan Pierre (the contact hitters), Podsednik is NOT ONE OF THEM, at least not as much as the player he is bashing, Lee! What the fuck! Lee had 87 strikeouts in 618 ABs this year. Podsednik had 75 K in 507 AB. This is the EXACT problem with people judging on "what they see in the real world." The mind makes foolish leaps based on small sample sizes and its own biases. This is the most frequent bias, "this guy cannot hit for power, he must be Tony Gwynn. This guy hits for power, he probably can't do anything else. This team is good, that player must be good. That team is bad, that player must be bad and a clubhouse cancer." With the exception of defense, which Lee is not that bad himself, Lee does everything better than Podsednik, including baserunning.

This is just plain ignorance. Luft has written his whole life about stupid shit, and he is not about to change now, despite the statistical boom in baseball. His last remaining defense to the statistics that question his life's work..."I don't want home runs only every fourth day." I just cannot figure out what that means. I have a complete inability to see what his point is. Please, someone take his side of the argument. At least morons like Kruk and Morgan had major league careers, and in Morgan's case, a great one. They aren't losers, but Jacob Luft sure as shit is.

PYTHON V. GATOR

That's right folks, you're looking at the latest outcome of the furious battle between gator & python ragin' in the everglades.

A 13-foot Burmese python recently burst after it apparently tried to swallow a live, six-foot alligator whole, authorities said.

"There had been some hope that alligators can control Burmese pythons," said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife professor said. "This indicates to me it's going to be an even draw. Sometimes alligators are going to win and sometimes the python will win."

Because of their powerful jaws and sharp teeth, I'll talke the gator every time. Who do you think will win? PYTHON or GATOR? Discuss.

*This post should indicate my remaning interest in post-season baseball.

More football gambling

Hey, its me, posting from work again. I've been dominating Saturdays lately, and Sundays have been a little more average (to the tune of 3-3 the last two weeks), but i think my sunday picks are gonna turn that right around this week. Notre Dame has a bye, so I get three free style picks saturday. Oh, and I'm calling my shot for next week. Notre Dame plus the points, whatever they are, at home against SC. You heard it here first, its going to be a close game.

Saturday, Rocktober 8
Duke @ Miami (-35)
This is one of those games where they can make an arbitrary big line and people will put enough money on the dog to make it work. For those that don't understand what i just wrote (myself included), Miami is gonna win big.

Minnesota @ Michigan (-7.5)
Michigan is better than advertised. people look at 2 losses and a 21 ranking and forget michigan started out as #3 in the country.

Oregon @ Arizona St. (-10)
This line has moved a point, and Arizona St. has looked great against two top ten teams despite losing both games.

Sunday, Rocktober 9
Tennessee @ Houston (-3)
Why is winless Houston getting three points, you ask? I have no idea either. The line has moved too, meaning there are people out there that know something I don't. A lot of them.

Tampa (-3) @ NY Jets
First road team of the picks. Vinny Testaverde has been with the team for fewer than 14 days, and curtis martin is showing his age.

Baltimore (+1.5) @ Detroit
Only underdog picked this weekend. this falls under 'i don't know why detroit is favored at all, so i should be betting on them', but Detroit is very bad, so I must contradict my normal strategy. Straight up: Baltimore.

Hatred Quickly Turned to "Dog-in-Heat-esque" Love

So now that the NHL's back, you guys in Milwaukee don't know what you're missing. How about these awesome rule changes that create A TON more offense (i.e. the subtraction of the red line from two-line passes and the goalie's trapezoid, just to name a few). I'm a huge fan of the new and improved NHL where speed and athleticism rule the day. Gone are the days when a team full of skullbreakers like the Devils of the late 1990s and early 2000s can win a Stanley Cup. The teams that will benefit most from the rule changes? Those teams with young stars and lots of cap room. The Red Wings and Avalanche no longer have the power to buy every free agent that throws their name into the hat, creating more chances for smaller-market teams to compete. I mean, Nashville is favored over Detroit to win that division this year with most experts picking the Calgary Flames to trot back to Canada with the most prestigious trophy in all of sports. In short, I do love the new NHL and the way the game is being played thus far this season. Look for lots of high scoring affairs, some shootouts, and lots of Swedes leading the league in points (I'm particularly pointing my finger at Markus Naslund in Vancouver).

Who are we rooting for

first off, yeah, i changed my handle. i meant to have this the whole time. more importantly, who are you all rooting for as WS reps? I would assume most poeple on this site are rooting for the LAA0ACAUSA, cept maybe my brother. how about nl? In theory i say the cardinals because they stand the best chance of winning, but do I really want Joe Buck calling four games (at least) for his home team? I'd be happy if any of the NL reps made it, though san diego least of all because the crew could have won that division. On the other hand, how cool would it be to have an all bulldog nlcs between atlanta and san diego? Thats a whole lot of scrappy, i-have-no-concern-for-my-personal-safety Giles action. Discuss amongst yourselves.

These MFing Announcers......UGH!

Maybe it's just me being hyper-critical or jealous of the men in this profession, but I think that what I heard from the announcers in the games today has almost made me not even want to watch the rest of the playoffs. I mean, it isn't even fun to watch these games when it is this frustrating to hear this stuff.

I watched most of the Sox Squared game, and Rick Shittecliffe, Mike Piazza, and Chris Berman made me want to throw up. There were three story lines in the game as I saw it. (1) Boston pitching: Clement could not locate anything. He got hit so hard that the BoSox went to mop-up men in the fifth inning. Those men got destroyed. Sox scored 14 runs. (2) White Sox hitting. The entire WSox offense came from home run balls. Those who hit those home run balls either hit some bad pitches or overcame good pitches and hit for power. (3) White Sox pitching. Contreras pitched a great ballgame.

The announcers focused on basically none of these as the main theme in the game. Contreras got some attention, but it was only for his personal accomplishments of defecting from Cuba and being away from his family. Not a single word was spoken about the location of his fastballs early in the count or how his forkball kept the BoSox completely off balance.

If you watched the game you'd know that Shittecliffe and Piazza basically said that the game was won on two plays. They repeated this sentiment at least 45 times, no kidding. The two plays were Scott Podsednik reaching bases and being bunted to second and Podsednik stealing third. Those were the two plays that won the game for the WSox....I guess? I guess all those home runs were only because Podsednik reached base and scored in the first inning.....scoring before any home run was hit. I was not the only one that this bothered. I found this hilarious site....http://firejoemorgan.blogspot.com/

How can you say that the WSox won because of this when the team slugged 5 home runs and Contreras completely shut down a very potent BoSox offense? Along the same lines, how can you say that the WSox defense won the game (specifically Scott Podsednik.....Berman: "How FITTING! [when podsednik caught a routine fly ball at the warning track to end the game]" Apparently, this catch was amazing and just another feather in Podsednik's cap. I guess Berman missed the two absolutely awful defensive plays by Podsednik and Rowand about 5 minutes earlier. Rowand's play WAS awful, and it was NOT to be applauded! He didn't catch the mother fucking ball, did he? He did slow up before he hit the wall! The ball was NEVER in his glove. So, NO, DO NOT make a big deal about his effort in a 12-run game!!!!!).

Between this crap about how the WSox only won this year because now they are a "multi-dimensional" offense and Tim McCarver's repeated use of the words "calm eyes" to describe Derek Jeter, I don't think I will be watching as much baseball this postseason. The White Sox were third in the league in home runs this year, and their pitching staff shocked the world with its ridiculous effectiveness. Ozzie Guillen's tactics and the speed of one left-fielder, who incidently led the league in CS, had the adverse effect of almost costing a team, which had a ridiculous ability to mash the ball and prevent runs, a spot in the playoffs. Shame on the announcers misleading the baseball world into even more misperception. Can't we get at lease one intelligent baseball writer into a booth somewhere?

I am really venting. I will continue to vent throughout the playoffs. Feel free to join the discussion/venting with your favorite quotes of the day from these asshole announcers...

Weekend update

final record: 3-2-1
Season Record: 10-6-1
Straight up: lost count, not as impressive

my numbers for this week don't look bad (60% winning percentage) but touchdowns in the last two minutes of the uw/iu and bc/ball st games saved me. nd is off next week, so i get three wild cards saturday.

With my last glimmer of Packer optimism...

I'll take the Packers with the 7 points they're being given tonight. I propose a friendly wager of 5 PBRs to the first person to respond and take the bet before game time. If not, I guess this'll be for the record.

Playoff prediction competition

I'll talk about the firings of Donnelly and Dauer when i'm not at work, but since I like sports and gambling, I thought I'd start a friendly little competition regarding the baseball playoffs. winner gets a free PBR next time I see them. if i win, i get ten free pbr's, all purchased by me.
My picks:
Red Sox over White Sox (1 pt)
Angels over Yankees (1 pt)
Cardinals over Padres (1 pt)
Astros over Braves (1 pt)
Angels over Red Sox (2 pts)
Cardinals over Astros (2 pts)
Cardinals over Angels (4 pts)

Tie Breaker: 55 total runs in World Series

(editor's note: we should see if jimmy's arbitrary world series winner theory applies. in theory, the exact opposite of my picks should do just as well as my picks. that means: White sox, yanks, braves, padres, White Sox, Braves, White Sox)

Congrats to the Bub

It looks like you're having a decent season so far:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=156168